You're Not Running Properly
by kathmolko
Summary: First in a short Action/Drama/Romance series, this introduces Jessi and James as 17, but if they had never joined Team Rocket. It's fairly Shippy.


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You're Not Running Properly, part 1

It's Shippy (er...did someone just say shitty?) and it's one of those 'What-if-Jessi-and-James-didn't-join-Team-Rocket' fics. I hope you enjoy it. 

The blue haired youth sighed, flicking his hair back. He was mad at the world, so he took his frustration out on the red vinyl of the McDinners _(Um...I have a little_ _line in my contract stating that I may not mention a brand name during the course of this story) _booththat he was sitting in with a small pocket knife. He hadn't ordered yet, but he supposed he would.

He thrust a hand into his jeans pocket, producing several coins and notes. Counting them out, he worked out that he had enough for a chicken burger and a small fries. 

Gathering the energy to leave his booth and join the queue was possibly one of the most trying things that he had done all week, and believe him, he'd a pretty trying week. But he endured it, just as he had endured the suffering of the week.

The red haired girl paused for a moment, her meal resting on the tray in her hands. Then she spied an unoccupied booth up the far end of the restaurant. So she ploughed her way through the crowd of overweight teens and grubby-faced children and thankfully slumped down in the booth.

She was about to start to eat when she heard a voice beside her.

"Oh." It said sadly.

The girl looked at its owner, a rather angry looking teenager.

"Oh..." she said "Were you sitting here?"

"Yeah," he sighed "But don't worry about it."

"Nah, it's OK, you can still sit here." The girl shrugged, indicating the seat opposite her.

"Thanks," he moaned gratefully, dumping his order on the scratched plastic table.

The two ate in silence for a while...before the girl turned to him. "So, what's wrong with you?"

"Huh?" he grunted, obviously dragging his mind back from whatever planet it had been on "Oh...you know, family problems..."

"Yeah." She agreed "I can sympathise with that. Believe me, man, I've got some of my own."

"I doubt they'll compare," the guy groaned "But what are they?"

"My mother just got reported as officially deceased...she'd gone on some business trip or whatever last month and the plane crashed somewhere in the mountains." The girl said simply, but her eyes were welling with tears.

"Oh shit...oh shit I am so sorry..." the boy apologised, hanging his head "I feel like such a dickhead. You must think I'm an arrogant pig."

"I don't know you well enough to think anything." She informed him.

The boy sighed, his eyes darkening "You really don't want to."

The girl shrugged, her eyes gaining a flirtatious glint "Perhaps I do."

The guy didn't seem to pick it up. "No, you don't,"

"Well you can know me. I'm Jessi Scarlet."

Jessi extended her hand and the boy lethargically took it. "James Lavender. Of the Cerulean Lavenders."

"Huh? You're a rich boy?" Jessi said heartlessly "I can't believe I'm talking to you. What are you doing here? Isn't this the wrong side of the tracks for you?"  
James's face tightened "Yeah, that's why I'm here. You'd never catch my fiance here in a million years."

"You want to avoid her? Is that like some rich boy custom or whatever?" Jessi snapped "Sounds stupid."

"How come you were nice up until you found out that I'm from a wealthy background?" James whined.

"I have problems with greedy people who stand all over those who they believe are below them to get what the want." Jessi hissed, snapping one of her fries in half.

"I take it you are from the low-income zone." He sighed. "I shouldn't even be speaking with you. Mother would kill me."

"At least you have one." Sneered Jessi.

"I'm sorry Jessi. I have to go. It was a pleasure meeting you." James said sadly. He got up and left, abandoning his now cold meal and Jessi.

"Yeah you leave! You can't handle me 'cos I make you feel guilty!" she shouted after him "You deserve it!"

The glass double doors swung shut.

Jessi slumped in her seat. _James sounds like such a nice guy_, she mused, _but he's such a pretty mama's boy, he has no idea what it's like in the real world. How hard it is for the people that his kind leach their fortunes off. _

She frowned. _Well if I can dismiss him so easily in words, why the Hell can't I get his face out of my mind?_

James threw the ceremony program off his desk in frustration. He didn't understand why there was to be such a big deal about such a forced marriage. It was completely wrong. 

So was his partner. Jessibelle and her kinky fetishes, Jessibelle who lashed him with a leather whip. Jessibelle who he loathed so much.

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Why are there so many rules for everything? He lamented in thought, _I wish that I could live the simple lives that people like Jessi must have. No social expectations, no pressure to do anything with their lives. _

Roughly four hours had passed since he had first met Jessi at lunchtime. He thought that her memory would soon vanish from him as soon as the stress of his life returned. But her face was still there, snarling.

Jessibelle would be utterly disgusted by someone like Jessi. So would his upstanding parents. There was something perverse in his near-attraction to her. And when he tried to forget her, something in his heart felt an actual pang.

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Two days later...

Perhaps it was destiny whispering urgently in his mind, but James felt some reason to return to McDinners.

He saw why so soon afterwards, as he sat in the same booth he had shared with Jessi on Thursday, listening to the almost soothing screams and laughter of the outlet.

Jessi was leaning against the wall, looking blankly around.

Her eyes met his. 

There were a few seconds of cloudy recognition in her eyes, then she frowned and looked away.

James too, averted his gaze, he was now staring at his left hand. It was shaking. There were three distinct bloodlines on it, all healed over, replaced by toughened scabs.

"Hey," someone greeted without enthusiasm.

James didn't need to look up to know that it was Jessi sliding into the booth.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him.

"I've got nowhere else to go." He answered.

"Wedding's tomorrow, ain't it?" she stated with a slight infliction indicating the question in her voice.

"Uh-huh."

"Excited?"

"No...look Jessi," James groaned "Jessibelle, that's the woman I shall have to wed, is the biggest, most discriminating bitch I've ever met. She insists that I do everything her way, up to her standards. I can't achieve what she wants."

Jessi looked on in a mixture of shock and sympathy, but said nothing.

"When I don't get it right...'proper' she calls it... I get beaten." 

James showed her the marks on his hand.

"Don't do it then, James," Jessi said, she was close to tears "Don't sacrifice your freedom. Nobody has the right to do things like this."

Jessi placed her hand upon James's. He sighed.

"But Jessi...I have to...it's just the way things have to be, I've known that I would marry her since I was ten."

"James you can't know who you are going to marry! Nobody should!" Jessi argued "I know it's weird for someone like me to believe in love, but I do! I don't know why...I just do. Do you love Jessibelle?"

"Jessi, I don't even know what love is. Is love a conscious decision of free will? Something forced upon you, hammered into you from an early age? Or something else, an irrepressible feeling inside you? Have you ever been in love before?"

Jessi looked him squarely in the eye. "Perhaps. Perhaps it is love. I don't know James...but I think I love you."

"I...I wish I knew what to say. I want to say I love you...but what if I don't..."

"Take a risk, James," Jessi pleaded "I want to be with you...I don't know why...I've come here everyday since I met you, hoping to see you again. It feels so right."

James swallowed hard. He knew now that perhaps it might not be labelled as love, but he felt something unbelievably strong for Jessi. He'd never felt this way about Jessibelle, or anybody even, until now. Perhaps it was love.

"But what are we going to do?" he demanded "Tomorrow is my wedding day..."

Jessi shrugged, her eyes glinting dangerously "We'll run then. We'll leave this place and it's expectations and trials."

"Where to?" James asked "We have nowhere to go..."

"I don't care where we go...I just...I just want to...be with you." Jessi begged.

He stroked her cheek with the back of his hand. He wanted to go to.

"I'll run Jessi...I'll follow you anywhere you want..." he whispered.

Jessi smiled.

James smiled.

THE END

Uh...it satisfied my need to write a romance, how about you? 

It's short, I know...well it is short for me...but I kind of enjoyed writing it, it was unconditional romance, a fresh change.

Love and Kisses,

Tenshi_Mew2

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End file.
